Municipal Waste – Chicken Wings and Thrash

Blistering.com: Well, with the last album, there was this big to-do over you not being a “party” band anymore.

Waste: That was for the press. We were sick of everyone dubbing us as that “party band” and asking us, “What was the craziest party you’ve ever been to?” and shooting silly string in our face for a photo shoot. We wrote a party record [2007’s The Art of Partying]…cool and I love getting wasted and partying, and I still do. The band is our job and we take it seriously, but we’ve been known as a fun band; we’re still the same band. We’re up there and having fun, entertaining.

Blistering.com: With metal, everyone has to be serious, you know?

Waste: We’re just down-to-earth - what you see is what you get. Offstage, it’s the same thing – we’re just being ourselves.

Blisteirng.com: Nuclear Assault’s John Connolly is on the new album. How cool is that?

Waste: We’re big fans, of course. You can probably here Nuclear Assault in some of our songs and it was just a matter of making a phone call. We met him years ago, we’ve been friends with Danny [Lilker, NA bassist], and they’re really cool guys. We put it out there and sure enough, he did it.

Blistering.com: It seems like with this new record and the promotion for it, you’re everywhere. That must come with being on Nuclear Blast, right?

Waste: We were out in L.A. and did tons of video, so now we have press things coming out every week. It was fun doing it. The thing that Earache (MW’s former label) would never do – and not to bash them – they’re letting us sell the album before it comes out. We have the album here for the tour. The leaks are coming from us [laughs]. The albums arrived on my porch at 7:00 AM and we were able to bring them to the first show.

Blistering.com: With five albums now, the setlist has to be a good problem to have. What are you thinking?

Waste: I’m a real stickler for the setlist. If I’m a fan, I want to see the whole era. We do about four songs off each record, but we’ll sprinkle in new ones. I think we’re doing about two tonight. There’s still a huge black for Hazardous Mutation…it’s like the songs we know that will go over well live. And we’re doing stuff off a Crucial Unit split, who are a Pittsburgh band. In Pittsburgh, people will probably dig it tonight. It’s from 2001 [laughs].

Blistering.com: Have you sampled the local cuisine here? Most people run straight to Primanti’s [a famous joint where sandwiches include French fries and coleslaw as primary toppings – ed].

Waste: Most of the time we have people bring us food, but we haven’t been able to head out, so we hit up this dude with the crazy moustache outside of the venue for burgers. He makes all of his own hot sauce and I’m a huge hot sauce connoisseur and he made me the “Hell Burger,” so I just had that. I don’t know how “Pittsburgh” that is.

Blistering.com: In Pittsburgh, salads come with fries on them.

Waste: We were just talking about that on the tour bus! And they put coleslaw on fries and everything. I can get down with that.

Blistering.com: Do you eat before you go on?

Waste: I eat all day [laughs]. I love eating. Sometimes I’ve eaten chicken wings right before we’ve gone on. My hands are so greasy, I can play faster.